Guess The Politician... And Follow The Money

A few days ago we presented a roster of the top contributors to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign as reported by OpenSecrets. Today we have done the same for two other candidates, representing two previous election cycles: 2008 and 2004. The first table shows Romney's key contributors to date. The other two are the blacklined candidates. We are confident everyone can guess who they are, but just in case they are presented unredacted below the chart. It is ironic that nothing really changes at the end of the day in terms of whose bidding is ultimately performed by the president, whoever it may be. We have highlighted those Romney donors who are identical to previous campaign cycles.

For the 3 confused people out there, here is the same chart but unredacted .

Some guy who works for the USDA and contributes gets listed as US Gov. Same with the rest of the groups. Have to do it that way or else some company could funnel contributions through their employees and never show on the radar screen. The Government is contributing even bigger right now as the ESF plunge protection team is ramping futures to make three of three primaries with overnight ramp jobs. Ron Paul loses a lot of potential support from the people with two minute attention spans when they say "What problems with the economy? Isn't the DOW up big today?" This will happen EVERY election until the nomination is in the bag. I wish there was an ETF that went bullish for pre-primary futures.

I don't think so, but he's said many times a substantial portion of his savings is in gold, and he started saving the moment is was legal to do so again (e.g. he was buying in the mid 70s and probably has entry positions that are sub-$100 from that time.)

The reporting is all over the place. There's individual contributions, employee contributions, campaign contributions and PAC contributions.

The US Government was the tell, However, AIG is not on that list. AIG gave the Obambi either a $104K fix or a $130K fix or a $112K fix or a $101K fix (I had a link - but can't find it - saying AIG chummed the Obambi a $800K fix). Anyway you look at it - a less than a million bucks bribe for a 30 Billion return - Obambi sure must have a real purty mouth (an' be able to deliver the slurpy sweet like a crack whore paying the sincerest homage ever for a dime rock)!

BTW: The recap on fox news showed the results of a twitter poll - Dr. Paul got the green (honest responses) for all categories - all the others had [only] deep reds for most of the categories (why is Dr. Paul not center stage - they always got him near the bus station). [Should be in a] Sanitarium lied. Said SS was in a deficit - SS is running surplus - the only defict in SS are the UST's the congress keeps swapping for the cash).

Almost expected Flip Romney to unzip a "skin" suit to reveal an "Obama" hiding inside.

What a bunch of cocksuckers in the crowd at the Myrtle beach GOP debate tonight! They cheered and lusted for more war as all the empty suits on stage (except Ron Paul) spoon fed them earfulls of lies, wickedness, and bullshit. Wolves in sheep's clothing all of them. Only Ron Paul argued for the golden rule and he was booed for it! Fox news graciously allotted time for such booing WTF is the matter with people? Once again we sit at the tip of financial armagedon and once again they are trying to take us to war.

We just finish watching debate. They're making Ron Paul look weak on defense.

He's right that there should be a golden rule on foreign policy, but so many think if we don't kill them over there first, then they'll come here and kill us. So Ron Paul needs to show us he's strong too and he'd kill. Make a stronger point of this. Because right now some perceive there are lots of scary terrorists who are trying to kill us and Ron Paul won't protect us from them. It would be better if next time they ask him question on foreign policy he talks of who he'd kill, for the blood thirsty. He did it a little tonight when he talked about Osama bin Laden but it was mixed up.

Myself and Austin Powers just woke up from being cryogenically frozen for the past 6 years. We turned on the TV and there was a man from Kenya calling himself the president delivering a speech about hope and change from a Teleprompter! What the fuck happened?

you can't understand because it is incomprehensible,
the terms don't mean what you think they mean. they
mean whatever the bankers want them to mean and only
when they want them to mean what they want. the rabbit hole.
.
it is so because a sovereign issuer of fiat currency
can never go "bust". one of these has the legal right to
print the money, or create it digitally, to the point of
devaluation where it becomes nearly worthless, but this
is not the same thing as going bust as an actor within the
system would experience. in that case there is a systemic
resolution of debts and assets. in the meta systemic case
there is just devaluation of everything and over time till
the system is dropped instantly. everybody goes bust at once.
the sovereign then is faced with the choice of dissolution
or re establishment, or re volution and no one here has
seen the likes of it not to mention the dollar is a global
currency. the other thing is the debt in the system is
the actual money in the system, that is the debt that can
and will be paid. the rest of the debt, which was spent or
is being spent, was the money but much of it is not in
any circulation and is instead sunk into assets, positions,
outsourced out of the national economy. it is beyond comprehension
what goes on in this global currency war, for me anyway.
the trend however seems to indicate that the debt money system
is disconnecting from the realities of local economies in that
the purpose of the money system as it is sold to the people,
business of production and services, has been rehypothecated
to enable value extraction at a distance. like a leveraged buy
out of the entire system is taking place? seems like stealing to me.
.
fiat money is a confidence game based on the bond markets and such.
time. a time ponzi on top of a speculative growth ponzi, it works
until it doesn't?

Ron Paul is a Christian Reconstructionist Theocratic nutbball. I'm surprised he isn't getting more traction in South Carolina. Protestant extremists who form the core of GOP primary voters are fighting amoung themselves at this point. The oddly favor Santorum when they have a shot at establishing Old Testament law once RP's minions control state governments.

I think the problem is that most Americans do like their government secular...or at least they may not care if gays get stoned and women have no access to abortion, but they do draw the line at the death penalty for adultery.

Hard to fuck the neighbor's wife if you need to worry about public stoning.

>>>Though a committed Baptist, Paul writes on his website, “My faith is a deeply private issue to me, and I don’t speak on it in great detail during my speeches because I want to avoid any appearance of exploiting it for political gain.”

Nevertheless, Paul’s support among the country’s most committed theocrats is deep and longstanding, something that’s poorly understood among those who simply see him as a libertarian.That’s why it wasn’t surprising when the Paul campaign touted the endorsement of Phil Kayser, a Nebraska pastor with an Iowa following who calls for the execution of homosexuals. Nor was it shocking to learn that Mike Heath, Paul’s Iowa state director, is a former board chairman of “Americans for Truth About Homosexuality,” which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group. Should Paul win the Iowa caucuses, it will actually be a triumph for a fundamentalist faction that has until now been considered a fringe even on the Christian right.<<<

and

>>>>Ron Paul has long been a favorite politician of Christian Reconstructionists. (Gary) North was a Paul staffer during the Texas congressman’s first term and has called him the “mahatma of self-government.” As Adele Stan reported on Alternet, in 2008, Howard Phillips, a Christian Reconstructionist who founded the Constitution Party, was the keynote speaker at the rally Paul convened in the shadow of the Republican convention. (That year, Paul endorsed the Constitution Party candidate for president over John McCain.) “The people who I know who are big Ron Paul guys are old school Reconstructionists,” says Paul supporter Brian D. Nolder, the pastor of Christ the Redeemer Church in Pella, Iowa.

It might seem that Paul’s libertarianism is the very opposite of theocracy, but that’s true only if you want to impose theocracy at the federal level. In general, Christian Reconstructionists favor a radically decentralized society, with communities ruled by male religious patriarchs. Freed from the power of the Supreme Court and the federal government, they believe that local governments could adopt official religions and enforce biblical law.<<<

i think its over for paul tonighthis debate performance was not his best to say the least and this was probably his last chance to place a dent on the romney juggernaut, which he failed to do.too bad his foreign policy is the most logical one, but he just did a shoddy job of articulating it tonight and south carolina loves the military.now i think that pathetic "i worked in the pvt sector" bitch has it all sown upwhat a shame RIP RP

No shit! Many of the pirates....I mean financial firms get 1,000s of % return.

By the way, the bottom is in on silver, as I have traded a big position (in my finacial capacity at least) for a pimped out finished basement. I want to fiddle while this shit burns in my music studio.

Just goes to show You how government starts to feed on itself. I am sure if you question any of these entities they will have rational justification for using public funds in campaign ads. All proof that governments need to be kept as small as absolutely necessary. As nothing more than a necessary evil.

We need to establish the voucher system Milton Friedman mentioned so many times. Maybe that way we can get them thinking and away from this compulsory brain washing we got going. That includes churches. No tax exemption for them. It makes other private schools uncompetitive.

Yup. Reminds me of a story from way back in the 1920's at the famous Algonquin Hotel round table, they used to sometimes play a word game in which someone would say a word and the next person had to immediately use it in a good sentence. One afternoon, a woman at the table carefully sounded out "horticulture". The next "player" was Dorothy Parker who immediately said, "You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think." So true.

Fannie and Freddie were for many years some of the largest contributors in aggregate dollars spent as well as to the Congresscritters responsible for their oversight."Let's roll the dice and see what happens." (Barney UKnowWho with his finger in some YouKnoWhat)

Had no idea why C-SPAN would choose to devote 3hr 6min airtime to that particular two month old hearing.

Now I understand. The hearing was a parade of dysfunction and corruption in nice suits. The first two witnesses were convicted fraudsters, but their crimes were nothing, nothing in comparison to the derelict behavior of the regulatory enforcement people on the second panel, who in turn had to be angels compared to some of the congressmen who were actively pimping for HUD.

If you ever had any doubt that we are totally screwed, please feel free to take a three hour trip down the rabbit hole with Maxine Waters, et al as your guides.

I guess the UC schools have been raising tutition last couple of years to fill void left by the donations to Hopey Mcshitpants. Professor Ned Beaty Romer up @ Cal better get some "bake" sales going on @ Berkeley to raise some more funds for the TOTUS (for medical use only of course). Ahhh, I love my fucked up state.

This I am aware of my friend; simply making a goof, or was i? Weather is great, some good peeps, a lot of fake ones (people and breasts), and you can get a quality burrito pretty much anywhere anytime of night. But the pols are horrible and the citizens clueless; I'm doing my part, hopefully many more in my generation (30yr old) are as well, because everything that is going on today in the world, well, sucks.

Your kind donation of even a dollar a day will assure that the poverty stricken, homeless banker and his children will have some small comfort in their hour of need. Everyone deserves a second chance, even their pets. Throw them a bone.

Thank you.

All donations are not tax deductible and at least four cents of every dollar is guaranteed to go to the needy entities listed of your choice.

Ms-
I'm well aware, been reading ZH for a while before registering. Speaking of which, hope your home is coming along, I recall either a tornado or hurricane.
A faint glimmer of hope... Over the weekend was going to go out for friend's b-day, but it was axed last minute. the GF and I were dressed up so I said, "let's go out". Her retort, "no, let's stay home, would rather save the money for ammo". I was shocked, as she is thinks I'm nuts for the most part; but she is coming along.

House is still being built, hope it is done in the next month and a half.

Tornado, no one was hurt badly.

I co-opted my hubby by designating him to take care of stuff he is interested in any way. What ex-military guy does NOT want to cover guns and training for the family for instance. Taking her interests and concerns into consideration might get her even more invested and could be fun for the relationship. I enjoy partnering, feels good.

Colleges are a joke now. CA used to have great uni's but they have been wrecked along with the entire state due to PC/liberalism. Somebody has to pay for tenured prefessors and their $450,000 a year pensions after they taught hate and grievance studies at the university.

Sometimes I am quite serious, and other times, I am a MsCreant. One of the things I love about Zero Hedge is that I don't have to be good. I can be as bad as I want to be and they won't ban me. Sometimes I want to be bad. A poem for you from Mary Oliver, maybe my most favorite of all. I post it from time to time and I never tire of it.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesFor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your bodylove what it loves.Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.Meanwhile the world goes on.Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rainare moving across the landscapes,over the prairies and the deep trees,the mountains and the rivers.Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,are heading home again.Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,the world offers itself to your imagination,calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --over and over announcing your placein the family of things.

But now, having gone to that viper's pit via your provided link, I feel the urge to go take a shower. Hopefully, I won't accidentally get blasted by an initial burst of cold water, or there just might be some deflation.

Did he morally want to free slaves? I heard it was a little more complex than that. I heard he thought they were inferior, that the races should not mix, and that the government should have supported sending them back to where they came from. He wanted them to enlist so that he could have soldiers with skin in the game, so to speak.

At the beginning of the war the south had 15million in specie.Northern investors had ties to the California mother lode and the Comstock in Nevada.Ships left regularly from the US mint on the Embarcadero in San Francisco to New York City with ballasts of 1, 2 and up to 3 million in gold and silver from these mines.These ships and cargo were owned by JPM, Andrew Carnegie and others and were used to finance the war. In addition to the $850 paid to his replacement, Carnegie also donated a ship to Lincoln worth 1 million in the day.The south tried to intercept these shipments but the closest they came was attacking an empty returning from NY heading to CA.

Though not involved in the physical battles per se, California’s contribution to the Union victory cannot be underestimated.Personally, if not for the discovery of gold in the state some 10 years earlier, I wonder if cotton would not have been de-throned as king and the war not have occurred at all.

Interesting story and a love a good Harry Turtledove-style yarn but I call bullshit here. During the Civil War, Morgan was a 20-something who hadn't even made partner in a bank and Carnegie was operating railway logistics for the North...Lincoln had never heard of either of theseguys by the time hee was assassinated. Where did you dig this up?

One evening George and Martha were watching National Geograhic. It was a program about the deep dark innermost unexplored reaches of Africa. It showed a band of erstwhile explorers who had stumbled upon a heretofore undiscovered tribe. They were fascinated by many of the rituals, inparticular one that the men preformed to enlarge their penises by hanging many pounds of objects therefrom.Now, George and Martha starting to get quite old and what with Martha feeling somewhat ignored and in want of possibly her last fling before expiring, suggested to George that he try the same trick.Being the dutiful husband, George proceeded to thread together 100 lbs of free weights which he then knotted to the end of his schlong.Several days later, being curious, Martha asked George how it was working, to which he replied; "It's not got much longer at all, but sure has turned black."

It's a moot point in my view. They are free now and rightly so. No matter his motivation the outcome was just. That aside, he was a complete tyrant, warmonger, and treasonist enemy of the state. If indeed your facts back up history I thank you. I will look it up for myself and uphold history in the future with my statements.

"he was a complete tyrant, warmonger, and treasonist enemy of the state"

A correction: He was not an "enemy of the state", he was a friend of 'the State' and an enemy of the individual States of the Union ... by overriding the wishes of those who legitimately voted to secede, under the terms of the Constitution, and waging an imperialist war of aggression against them to force them to remain.

What he did was analagous to Brussels declaring war against the PIIGS if they chose to withdraw from the Euro ... or the US waging war against New Zealand if it chose to withdraw from the ANZUS Treaty ... or a husband beating his wife senseless and locking her in the basement if she asked for a divorce.

Glad you posted that. I only learned about this last year. I bought the whole "south bad" "north good" story until then. It was really grey and complex. Opened my mind to what the Rebels saw. I don't support slavery, but the truth is neither side was clean on that count (those in power did not give a shit about them as human beings, they were a bargaining chip) and the reason they tried to sucede is that territories were occupied that, according to the terms of the Constitution, the feds promised not to do. When the feds came in "took land" and basically said "fuck you" that is when they withdrew. The terms for them Joining the US were always tentative and conditional, the feds violated a condition. Blew my mind. I've bought into southern guilt all my life and I had the story wrong. It was a big deal learning about this.

Again, things are so tense between the races, I feel a little defensive, I want to make clear, slavery is wrong (never mind we all benefit from it today with all the stuff we buy from small brown people working in factories at below subsistence wages and conditions, maybe worse than some of our slaves had it). But it is that tension that prevents folks from knowing about why individual states started to withdraw. The narrative rewritten says north educated sophisticated and good, south backwards savage and bad. Guess it is shorter to write it this way in a kid's history text (like mine was).

When you look into it further, MsC, you'll find that slavery only became an issue later -- when the North looked like it was about to lose the war! The North then brought out the slavery card (the 19th century equivalent of "doing it for the children") to attempt to gain some moral high ground and thereby (successfully) improve enlistments.

The original cause of the South's secessions was over unfair tariff issues (though I've forgotten most of the details right now).

The reason you'll never find the truth in school history books is the subversion of the American education system by three founding 'Skull & Bones' members (on behalf of a foreign power, which shall remain nameless in this post). They studied Hegel together in Germany after graduating from Yale, then returned to the US to later become presidents of Yale, Johns Hopkins and Cornell and exert an extreme influence over the development of the dumbing down of America. One of them was also the founder of the Carnegie Institution (using Carnegie's money) - aligning him closely with eugenics, Morgan and Rockefeller. It's all a filthy tale, with the same players and families reappearing in scene after scene after scene, when you look under the clean white skin.

Forced conscription, institution of a federal income tax, suspension of Habeas Corpus. If I had to pick a favorite president who grew up in a log cabin, Andy Jackson would get my vote a lot quicker than Lincoln.

Lincoln's even on record saying that if he could save the Union and free no slaves, he would go for that option. The Emancipation Proclamation only went into effect in Confederate States...slave-holding Union states (yeah, they had those) were exempt.